My Homemade Wads

I’m using veggie fiber wads from buffalo arms company under lubed bullets. I have a few bullet molds specifically for cap and ball as well as the Kerr bullets I’ve been experimenting with.

Well you all got me into this endeavor now too. I ordered a punch, felt and some beeswax.

I am new to BP revolver shooting and was wondering, should I load the cylinder to have the round ball as close to the face of the cylinder as practical or does it not matter?

When I shot my revolvers last week for the first time (3rd model Dragoon & 1858 Remington), I used 30 gr. Pyrodex, prelubed felt wads with 0.454 round ball. once the balls were seated there was still considerable space between the ball and the edge of the cylinder…does it matter?

I find a cheap 100% wool blanket at a thrift store or garage sale. I wash it in the washing machine with cold water and baby shampoo or pet shampoo and hang it to dry and use it for projects. If the scraps are too thin I wash them again and dry the scraps in a dryer with high heat. They tend to “felt” up and make good material to punch wads out of.

Old-Duckman, the space probably doesn’t matter for plinking and informal target shooting. For top accuracy, then working up the most accurate load with a filler may be warranted. I can’t shoot handguns well enough that it matters so I don’t bother.

The 12”x12” sheets I got at Michaels look perfect. The gold color one is thicker so I punched out .44 size wads. The white one is a tad thinner and will punch out the .36 size wads very soon. I purchased a set of Harbor Freight punches on sale a good 20 years ago for $4 and finally got to use them lol. Judging from the amount I got out of the gold sheet in .44 which was 347 wads, I should be able to punch out 450+ wads of .36 caliber size.

I bought a half yard of 1/4" felt 2 or 3 years ago and still haven't made any yet. But one day....

Old Duckman, here's my take on the seating depth issue. If your chambers are straight, seating depth doesn't matter from a distance to forcing cone perspective. If you look at your revolver, the ram doesnt go very deep. I think it matters more from a loading pressure perspective. So for plinking it probably won't matter, it doesnt in my 58 Remington. If you're looking for top accuracy, adding filler will probably make a difference, its helping put consistent pressure on the powder. Just my thoughts.

ernbar said:

The 12”x12” sheets I got at Michaels look perfect. The gold color one is thicker so I punched out .44 size wads. The white one is a tad thinner and will punch out the .36 size wads very soon. I purchased a set of Harbor Freight punches on sale a good 20 years ago for $4 and finally got to use them lol. Judging from the amount I got out of the gold sheet in .44 which was 347 wads, I should be able to punch out 450+ wads of .36 caliber size.

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Same 9 piece set is now $9.99 -- just bought mine last month